Suffice to say I agree with their views on European games of back then, they were always a little bit off gameplay wise. Lots of focus on technicalities and how games look and sound, but not on perfecting game design. I would say it has to do with the demoscene ethos of always trying to push the hardware more, many times without any real reason but showing off.

Games like Elfmania which look amazing but play like absolute garbage are a good example, and unfortunately there are many of them out there.